The Cabinet Office has one again awarded Oxford City Council its prestigious Customer Service Excellence (CSE) standard.
CSE is the UK's gold standard for customer service delivery. It recognises organisations that deliver efficient and effective services and place customers at the heart of service provision.
To meet the standard the Council was successfully assessed against five criteria:
- customer insight
- the culture of the organisation
- information and access
- delivery
- timeliness and quality of service
In confirming the award the CSE assessors said: “Oxford City Council is committed to putting the customer at the heart of the way it operates, and as a result seeks feedback to influence improvements to the customer experience.
“This is a council that constantly strives to be excellent at all times. They want to be the best they can. Staff consistently made reference to resolving issues at the first point of contact."
To retain the standard the Council had to provide suitable evidence across 57 criteria. Additionally this year the assessors awarded 11 Compliance Plus ratings where the Council were judged to have gone “above and beyond” what was expected.
The CSE assessors recognised that each service area has an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of current and potential customer groups, coupled with methods to develop insight to better understand their needs and preferences. They highlighted the Council’s methods to engage and involve customers in consultation activities, for example, surveys, forums, workshops and resident’s panels and the way that the feedback gained informs strategies, policies, and service improvements.
Their report added that customer-facing staff are encouraged to share ideas to improve processes, policy development and services and the Council goes above and beyond when working with customers, including tenants, residents, businesses, and visitors. It recognised the Council’s top-down commitment to a customer focused ethos, effective working with partners, work with communities, consultation activities and improvements through the customer journey,
The Council received only one partial compliance, concerning customer satisfaction, and will now work hard to improve scores in line with the stretching targets it sets for itself.
Comment
“I want to thank the Council’s staff who have worked so hard to ensure we once again retained this award and congratulate them on the achievement. It is confirmation that we put our customers at the heart of delivering services and it shows that we go out of our way to make a real difference.”
Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services
Oxford City Council has held the CSE standard over the last nine years, ensuring its CSE principles and practices have become fully embedded into the organisation.
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